


call and response

by Zekkass



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Abuse, Character Study, Gen, Origin Story, Roller-Is-Tarn AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 03:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13802235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zekkass/pseuds/Zekkass
Summary: A warning: when you set out to create a mech whose voice can kill, be certain you and your fellow scientists agree on the methods used to keep your creation loyal.





	call and response

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for zeenovos, who asked for an AU where the Autobots created Roller specifically for his vocal abilities and mishandled him, leading to the creation of Tarn.
> 
> Please enjoy!

_"The primary feature of this unit will be its vocalizer, or more specifically the ability of its vocalizer to produce sounds that will affect a specific target. This is not a weapon that will be able to destroy an army in a single swoop, but a specialized tool, meant for interrogations, terror tactics, executions. Accordingly, this unit will be equipped with a mind capable of using this ability efficiently: one that is eager to hunt out secrets, capable of noticing misplaced details, and utterly loyal to our cause."_

//

Boot-up sequences tend to be thorough: all systems online, all functions operational, the works. Roller's first emotion when he was created was a deep sense of rightness as every line of his coding was read and eveything came up green.

Everything in its proper place, the warm glow of a spark within a previously-chilled frame, and there: creation.

After satisfaction comes curiosity as the mind begins to think. His sensors detect things outside of his frame, and he has not been preloaded with _that_ information, nor information on how to sort it, so the next several kliks of Roller's existence consist of information overload and the scramble as his systems figure out how to label and prioritize the information flowing in from all of his sensors.

He's in an oblong room, standing upright next to a tall metal slab. Standing before him are two Cybertronians with spindly builds and sharp optics. One of them is holding a scanner, and it tickles his sensors harmlessly; they must be monitoring his creation.

Audio data comes to him, more important than all the rest:

"Can you understand me?"

"I can," he says, satisfied with his new function, and the sound he produces.

"Identify yourself and your function."

"Roller, weapon."

Frowns, and a correction: _"Autobot_ weapon."

"Autobot weapon," he amends. Something is wrong, and a faint buzz sounds in the air; the two of them are communicating in a way that excludes him.

Information becomes available as he needs it: they're using their communication systems, colloquially known as comms. He is sensitive enough to pick up on the buzz those messages make as they're transmitted, but he doesn't have the equipment necessary to eavesdrop.

How irritating. "What are you talking about?"

"You," says the one holdng the scanner. "We're going to have to teach you loyalty to the Autobots the manual way, thanks to _someone's_ unadvised choice."

"Loyalty is stronger if it's chosen."

Whatever retort the other has in mind, it's held when Roller moves for the first time, stepping away from his slab. The information coming in changes, and he tilts his head, examining his limbs.

"You're supposed to wait for orders," says the angry mech.

"I am curious," Roller answers, and now the mech doesn't have a scanner in their servos, but a stick with two prongs on the end of it. "What is that?"

Answer comes as the prongs touch his chest and it _hurts,_ a shock of pain that continues even though he retreats, pressing up against the slab - and then it ends and he doesn't move, waits for orders.

"Identify yourself and your function," comes the order.

"Roller, Autobot weapon," he says.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Science. You exist because the Autobots are in danger." The voice continues, listing enemies, filling out the blank spots in the information Roller was created with.

The Decepticons are the enemy. He is to obey all orders without question. The Autobots are to be obeyed and protected.

If he does not obey, they'll hurt him.

"Alright," says the other mech. "Come with us."

Now he is led away from the slab, out of the room, into a series of corridors, and into a small room that has a horizontal slab on it.

"This is where you will recharge yourself and wait between missions and training sessions. Lie on that berth until someone comes for you."

Roller obeys, and as he does the door slides shut and the lights dim.

He has questions: what are Autobots? What are Decepticons? The colored symbols had been explained as faction sigils, but what _are_ they? Why do Autobots need to be protected? Why were those Autobots afraid of him?

They had been afraid of him, just as he had become afraid of the prongs.

Questions build up inside of him as he lies still, coming as quickly as his systems can churn them out, and still he doesn't dare ask them.

_"What is that?"_

Pain.

//

Answers come slowly over time: his training commences, introducing him to the function of weaponry, what a shout from his vocalizer can do, more functions that will enable him to damage other Cybertronians.

All of this is interesting and useful, but none of it answers the central questions he burns to ask - not until more information packs are uploaded into him one cycle. He's led back into the room where he was created, plugged into a console by the mech who held the prongs, and - 

"Listen up," says the mech. "I know Twisttop has interesting ideas about how you'll organically grow loyalty to our faction. I agree that loyalty created in that manner can be effective, but you, you're a weapon."

"I am," Roller confirms as the mech pauses.

"Your function is to obey."

"Yes."

"Then watch every single one of these files in your downtime until you run out of them."

"Yes," Roller says, accepting the files as they're downloaded into him. What are they? He doesn't ask.

He's led back to his room and left alone.

The conclusion he draws at the end of the first set of files is that they are meant to shock the viewer into unquestioning agreement that Decepticons are violent Cybertronians who will torture and kill Autobots. Battlefields, ambushes, carnage, scenes from the viewpoint of a scared mech hiding below an overpass, scenes from medics touring a battlefield, more.

The scenes give him ideas for use in training, but he refrains from testing them. He doesn't know when he'll have a trainer who will punish curiosity, and they're already harsh when it comes to his failings.

The second set of files continues the theme of the first, but with more variety. Different scenes, different locations, and they aren't all directly tied to the war - there's one where a mech sits with others in a refueling outlet, and they're forced to leave by the sudden presence of many armed mechs sporting the purple sigil of the Decepticons.

The implication is clear, and other scenes attempt to reinforce this, but through it all Roller has one question: if the mech who hurt him doesn't think he should come by his loyalty to the Autobots by learning it, then what is this?

It seems designed to teach him loyalty, to manipulate his emotions, and - 

Ah, Roller realizes, alone on his slab. These files must be incomplete. If he is a weapon, who obeys without question, then he must be intended to absorb all of this material without question. He must be made to feel the way these files intend him to feel: angry at the Decepticons, horrified, upset.

Instead he has questions: why is this happening? What isn't he being shown? Where are the rest of these files?

He sits up.

Pain is a strong memory, a powerful lesson.

The questions within him are stronger.

He goes to the door, unsurprised when it slides open at his approach; it does that whenever he is with another mech. A cursory glance up and down the corridor, and he has his training to assist him.

He goes back to his origin and finds that console, extending his cables and touching the controls on his own.

At first, the interface confuses him; there are so many files, so many commands that he is paralyzed.

But - but. The files have given him a useful word.

He commands the system to bring him footage of Megatron, and it obeys.

//

Megatron is a revelation.

His speeches - and there are many of them - begin with questions and end with answers.

Roller lies still in his berth, sensors off, utterly focused on the words that finally lay his questions to rest.

What are Autobots? _Hypocrites._

What are Decepticons? _Revolutionaries._

Why do Autobots need to be protected? _Because they create their own enemies._

Why are Autobots afraid? _Because they know what their creations are capable of._

And what is Roller to do with his answers? _Become a Decepticon._


End file.
